Magic Roll Penalty help please

[bigdamnhero]

I like Magic Rolls in theory, but I generally prefer to avoid them in practice just because they slow combat down by adding Yet Another Die Roll. Your mileage may very-much vary. 

 

One thing I have seen for some magic systems is to require Magic Rolls only when the caster is altering the spell in some way, such as in unusual circumstances or if the character can't meet the normal requirements of the spell. So say a wizard wants to try and cast a spell with Gestures & Incantations despite being bound & gagged => give me a magic roll, with a -1 for every -1/4 of Limitation you're ignoring. Or the spell normally takes a Full Phase, but the caster is in a rush. Or the spell normally only works outdoors but the caster wants to try and cast it indoors. Or whatever. Sometimes that's built in as a Variable Limitation; sometimes it's just a house rule for How Magic Works. It does make for a much more flexible magic system without going the full VPP route. But I'm not sure I'd recommend trying that for newbies until you have a feel for the system. [/CAUTION SIGN]

[mhd]

I generally like my side effects to be "tradition" specific, once the amount of spells gets large enough. As neat as it is to have unique spells, once you get a D&D-like amount of them, I'd much rather just have simple HERO power effects and a more generic set of side effects/costs. If we're just talking about a few rituals of rare power, then okay, make them all stand out.

 

That would work nicely in a horror or low-magic fantasy game, but with the usual high-fantasy shenanigans, I tend to prefer if it's "All witches must touch the ground while casting" with every spell, instead of "The Curse of Shak-Zaroth drains 2d6 PRE if the check fails and only can be attempted while the moon isn't full".